Timothy H. O'Sullivan -- Photographer for the Wheeler Expedition

Or at least this is likely him. The essential reference is Joel Snyder's well-researched American Frontiers The Photographs of Timothy O'Sullivan, 1867-1874 (Aperture, 1981). It features many pictures of O'Sullivan who apparently favored short-brimmed hats while in the field. Snyder is not entirely consistent on this point. He says that O'Sullivan is wrongly credited for photos of Limon Bay, which was on the Pacific side of Panama, which O'Sullivan never visited. But my atlas puts Limon Bay on the Atlantic side of Panama. The man at the right seems more likely to be John Moran, a talented photographer in his own right and brother of the more famous 19th Century American painter. Thomas Moran. James D. Horan's Timothy O'Sullivan Americas's Forgotton Photographer (Bonanza Books, 1966) states that the man at the right is identified as "Photographer at Pinogana". My atlas shows Pinogana in the interior of Panama, on a river flowing to the Pacific. Can anyone provide more definitive information on this?

Not O'Sullivan? -- Probably Moran

So what does all this matter? The minute arcana of history get faded over time into an unquestioned narrative of legendary stature. Eighteen years after Snyder's book, this photograph continues to mis-identified as being of O'Sullivan, often when a stereoview of the image comes up for sale. No intentional fraud by the seller, just a repetition of the legend that continues to be believed.

Also, look at the pictures. The narrow-faced man in the Panama picture doesn't much resemble the round-faced O'Sullivan. Arguing from appearances in a weak argument at best, though. Some time ago, according to the Maine Antique Digest, someone was trying to hawk a daguerreotype as an unknown protrait of Abraham Lincoln, despite that fact that it looked very little like any known potrait of the great man. I remember someone related to the tale commenting that if someone paid a price comparable to the claim, then that was enough to make it a bonafide Lincoln portrait! So this is how money makes history?

History deserves a more cautionary tone. The man above is only very likely to be O'Sullivan. If we honor the man and his work, we owe it to this master of American iconography to see him as he was. And we can also give credit to John Moran for his fine photographic work.

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